Waiting for the phone to ring
by Tiny2312
Summary: Christian is still away, but he has been phoning Syed every night at 8.30 sharp. Syed is sitting around at home. Just how will he fill his time until Christian calls?


Syed looked at his watch, and he sighed as he saw that it was only 6.00. He had spent some time with Yasmin, he had said his prayers, and he was now at a loss. Since being away in Gran Canaria, Christian had called him every evening at 8.30 sharp. But 8.30 sharp was ages away...

"OK," Syed said out loud to himself. "You need to keep yourself busy until he rings." So, alone in the flat with two-and-a-half hours to kill, Syed tried to find things to do. He made a cup of tea (five minutes), he did some internet shopping (about half an hour), he had a shower (fifteen minutes), he made a sandwich and ate it (ten minutes), and he tidied up the living room which was already tidy (one minute). He looked at his watch again. "Bugger," he thought. "Only 7.00."

Was it really only 7.00? Bloody hell, this evening was dragging on. He took a large bar of chocolate out of the fridge, put the TV on, and thought as he lay down on the sofa that the one good thing about Christian not being at home was that he could eat the whole bar to himself if he wanted, without being lectured about calories and fat content, and how he really shouldn't just have a Nutella sandwich and a large bar of chocolate for dinner.

Syed then thought of all the things he wanted to say to Christian when he rang. For sure, he would tell him about what had happened when he had seen Amira with Anthony earlier near the underground station. Amira had spied Syed from the across the road, and she had pulled Anthony to her and started to give him what she must have thought looked like a passionate kiss, in a vain attempt to make Syed jealous. Unfortunately, just at that moment, the number 25 bus had raced past and splattered the contents of a particularly dirty puddle all over the two of them. Amira had screamed and stomped off to go home and change, leaving Anthony standing on the pavement, soaking wet and looking decidedly dazed and confused.

Syed laughed as he replayed the incident in his mind. When he had said his prayers earlier, he had asked for forgiveness for laughing at the two of them, but he added as a footnote that even the Almighty must have laughed at seeing that.

What else did he want to say to Christian? Syed knew how much Christian would be missing him, and he resolved that, despite his usual shyness, he would be the first tonight to say "I miss you," partly because he knew that it would make Christian's day, but he also wanted to say it because it was true.

He sighed as he thought of how true it was. "Chocolate is no consolation for not having your man with you, whatever anyone says," Syed thought, as he savoured the last piece. But even his favourite chocolate bar was just not cutting the mustard tonight. God, how he had been missing having cuddles on the sofa with Christian when the flat was so draughty and cold these days; how he had been missing Christian's lips on his and hearing thirty times a day that he was the most handsome thing that Christian had ever seen; and most of all how he had been missing resting his head on that broad chest and being wrapped up in that warm embrace as he drifted off to sleep! Oh yes, he had been missing Christian all right.

There was something else that Syed was dying to tell Christian about. Oh, the time was ticking by so slowly! 7.30… 7.45… 7.51… 7.53… 7.54… 7.54… Syed took his watch off and threw it down on the coffee table. Constantly looking at it was driving him crazy. "But there's still half an hour to go," he groaned.

With the TV chattering away in the corner, Syed tried to while away some more time with a mail-order catalogue that had been pushed through the letterbox a day or two earlier, and he idly flicked through the pages. He looked at the adverts for trousers for older men who were becoming incontinent (he smiled as he thought of how he could wind Christian up with that), and for a moment he seriously considered buying one of those claw things for picking up the remote control when it dropped off the sofa and you were too lazy (or your arms were too full of boyfriend) to bend down to pick it up. He admired the portable bathroom scales that you could have your initials engraved on, and he spent some time reading about the little gadget that could help you translate 1,000 phrases into 14 different languages. That might come in handy… Syed finally decided that he would buy the little step ladder, so that he could clean the top of the doorframes without having to balance on that chair with the wobbly leg, and he was just deciding whether to buy the red or the black one, when he suddenly realised that the TV programme he had been half-watching was finishing and that it was nearly 8.30.

Syed rushed to the bedroom. Since Christian had been away, he had always lain on their bed every night when Christian phoned. Doing that somehow helped him imagine that Christian was there, and not sitting in a hotel hundreds of miles away. He hugged Christian's pillow which still smelt of his aftershave – just – and closing his eyes, he spent a minute imaging Christian being in bed with him...

At exactly 8.30, Syed's phone rang.

"Hello, Clarkey, I miss you," he said. Before Christian could say anything, he added, "I've been missing you so much this evening that I've booked a last-minute flight and I'll be arriving at 10.30 tomorrow morning…"


End file.
